Learn How Not To Drown on a Raft Made of Trash

  • Type: event
  • Location: ZERO1 Garage, 439 S. 1st Street, San Jose, California, California, 95113, US
  • Starts: Jul 25 2013 at 2:00PM
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DIY Raft Building: A Gallery Show

Artist Wes Modes brings DIY river rafting to San Jose's ZERO1 Garage as part of UCSC OpenLab's Bring It! exhibition.

[img]http://modes.io/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/IMG_1313-750x750.jpg[/img]

A few of us set out on a punk rafting journey, driving cross-country to Omaha, Nebraska, building a raft out of found and scavenged materials and floating for a week, Huck Finn-style, on one of the largest fastest rivers on the continent, the Missouri River. We barely lived to tell the tale, and so year after year, we took longer and longer adventures, floating many major American rivers on completely ridiculous homemade rafts.After that first single raft trip, we invited others, launching with whole punk raft flotillas.

It changed the way we saw the world, opening us up to new possibilities. The forgotten river that flows through most towns, often culverted, shoved underground or behind the grubbiest neighborhood. It was the old freeway, before the railroad, before cars, the only way goods and people moved rapidly about.

These overlooked waterways, so forgotten that the people who lived in the towns from which we launched our rafts often argued with us about where the river went, where they came from, whether they were navigable or safe, and even what direction they flowed.

We bring the punk raft to the ZERO1 Garage in downtown San Jose, a cavernous gallery space in which to talk trash-built river rafting, punk engineering, and DIY adventuring.

Wes Modes will demonstrate the art and technology of DIY raft building, share photos, and talk about his experience since 2005. Workshops Wednesday 7/24 2-5pm and Friday 7/26 6-9pm.

Photos and more at http://modes.io/diy-river-rafting-gallery-show/

About the Artist
Wes Modes is an artist and high-tech runaway. In various lives, he is a sculptor, writer, performer, artist, community organizer, geek, and mischief-maker. He is involved in numerous collective and non-profit endeavors in Santa Cruz. In the fall of 2013, he will enter the University of California Santa Cruz Digital Art and New Media MFA program.

About ZERO1
Working with some of the most fertile and creative minds from the worlds of art, science, design, architecture, and technology, ZERO1 produces the ZERO1 Biennial, an international showcase of work at the nexus of art and technology and the ZERO1 Fellowship program where principles of artistic creativity are applied to real world innovation challenges. ZERO1 Garage, 439 S. 1st Street, San Jose, CA 95113